City leaders hashing out ideas for using budget surplus — a one-time windfall from state

Restoring library hours and ramping up building code enforcement were among top priorities listed by Oceanside City Council members this week as they talked about how to spend a rare $1.3 million windfall of cash the city expects to have when it starts the coming fiscal year.

The discussion took place Wednesday at a budget workshop focused on the city’s 2013-14 fiscal year, which starts July 1. The city expects to end the 2012-13 fiscal year with a surplus because of money it’s getting back from the dissolution of its redevelopment agency and a refund of county charges for administrative fees relating to property tax collection.

Council members said Wednesday that, in terms of construction projects in the next fiscal year, they wanted to speed up work on improving Coast Highway, starting in South Oceanside.

The council also said it wanted to fix up beach restrooms, a project that was stalled with the state-mandated dissolution of redevelopment agencies last year.

The construction projects are not affected by the surplus cash but were part of council discussions in telling City Manager Peter Weiss what to emphasize in preparing a capital improvement budget and a general fund budget for the coming fiscal year.

The general fund, where the surplus money will go, covers most day-to-day city functions while the capital improvement budget applies to long-term construction projects.

Mayor Jim Wood said restoring library hours was “absolutely a priority” in general fund spending because people in a poor economy use the libraries more than ever for job searches and other things.

Councilman Jerry Kern said stronger code enforcement is needed “to make sure we have a safe, clean city.”

Weiss said keeping the city’s two libraries open an extra 14 hours a week and adding a bookmobile stop would cost about $95,000 of the surplus.

Councilman Jack Feller said he’d like to put an even greater emphasis on code enforcement by hiring four part-time code enforcement officers.

Not counting the $1.3 million infusion of cash, officials are projecting that in the 2012-13 fiscal year they’ll be right on target with expenses matching revenue almost to the dollar at $116.5 million, with $16,664 to spare.

Although the financial outlook is rosy for now, Weiss cautioned that the city likely will be back in the hole two and three years hence.

In the 2014-15 fiscal year, Weiss projected that the city will have a $1.7 million budget shortfall rising to $1.9 million the following year.

The shortfalls are a result of the rising costs of paying the pensions and health insurance costs for city workers, Weiss said.

Councilman Gary Felien said the city “needs to keep in mind” the future shortfalls in deciding what to do with the surplus.

“As a body, we should be leery of spending money now that we’re going to have to cut back next year and maybe more (cutbacks),” Felien said.